RELATED: If You Got Moderna, This Is How Your Antibodies Respond to the Delta Variant. A new study out of Japan that has not yet been peer-reviewed analyzed blood samples from 378 healthcare workers between the ages of 32 and 54 who had received the Pfizer vaccine three months earlier. Researchers initially found that antibody levels were lower in older individuals, which has been found in previous studies. But after adjusting for age, the team found that the only risk factors that led to lower antibodies were being a male with a current smoking habit. The study’s authors speculate that the difference in lower antibodies between biological sexes might be related to the fact that the smoking rate was twice as high among males as females. They also found that former smokers didn’t see a similar reduction in antibodies, concluding that “smoking cessation before vaccination may improve the individual efficacy of the [Pfizer] vaccine.” The study’s authors cautioned that the preliminary data is not strong enough to draw a solid link between smoking and vaccination. They argued that further research on the topic would be necessary before any solid conclusions could be made about the connection.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb RELATED: If You Got This Vaccine, You May Be More Protected Against Delta. But the recent study isn’t the first to find a potential correlation between smoking and showing lower antibodies post-vaccine. Another observational study published in April in the journal Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews considered 86 healthcare workers from a hospital in Rome who had received the Pfizer vaccine. Blood samples were taken from each participant before their first dose and again one to four weeks after their second dose had been administered to test antibody responses. The study found that participants with regular smoking habits had fewer antibodies in their systems than nonsmokers, surprising the research team. “We did not expect smoking to be a risk factor for lower antibody titers, as there is virtually zero available evidence suggesting that smoking is associated with reduced response to vaccines,” Mikiko Watanabe, MD, PhD, a specialist in endocrinology and metabolism at Sapienza University in Rome, told Healio. RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. Besides any potential effect smoking may have on COVID-19 vaccines, being a habitual smoker raises your risks for fighting the virus itself, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency warns that “being a current or former cigarette smoker can make you more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19. If you currently smoke, quit. If you used to smoke, don’t start again. If you’ve never smoked, don’t start.” RELATED: This One Thing Lowers Antibodies After Vaccination—and 6 Million People Do It.
